The Whirlwind

I am currently on vacation in Mexico, and that is the only reason that I have even had this much time to write.  Since becoming a father I have been busy.  Very.  It is a busy that is hard to explain.  Yamamoto Sensei said it the best.  First is family, then work, then iaido.  And so it is.

My life before and after parenthood are completely different, as are my foreseeable destinies.  Hell.  Everything is different.  You give up so much when you become a parent, but what you gain is something so incredible, and so precious; I'm not sure it can actually be explained.

It has been a difficult transition, and we aren't through it yet, but I'm starting to see some light.

Its been a whirlwind this year.  Since Bucharest I have tried to find that balance between work and life and iaido and writing and everything else I used to do.  I'm still working on that balance, but I've been trying.  I was down in the States, then home, trying to catch up on housework, trying to take care of E-Dawg as much as possible to support Chloe, then more work, then back to the States, then home, trying to fulfill my obligations to my students at the dojo (and myself), then work, then taking care of E, then trying to take care of C, and me.  Chaos.  Utter chaos.  Actually, it is only chaos when you look at it objectively.  When you live it you can't really see the forest for the trees.

Well, its my forest, and my trees.  That's life.

So here we are, the tail end of summer (the beginning of fall back home), and on a much much needed break.  That work-life, life-life balance is coming along nicely... and here we are...

Bucharest

It was months ago, but blogging fell by the wayside a bit when baby E-dawg popped out.

Anyways, it was like this...  January was just a normal January, then BAM! my work said a "you're going to Romania in like... a week."  So... yeah, that's how it went.  This trip was for meetings in Bucharest, so for the first time in quite a few visits to Romania, I was able to explore a bit of the capital.  Mostly it was downtown and old town, but we did take a ride on the metro to find the local Lego store.

It was all meetings, so there isn't much to say... but there is quite a bit to show...

*I so threw up in the plane the next day because of this street-meat...